Four-years ago Sports Illustrated asked me to write a piece about the NFL’s Wonderlic test — does it really work or say anything about whether a prospect can succeed in the NFL?

The Wonderlic alone, of course, couldn’t possibly be a tell-all, and a bit of research confirmed as much. But while looking at top quarterback prospects, their reported Wonderlic scores and how they fared in the NFL, I noticed a trend.

It was not an absolute. It was not a secret code, or a definitive indicator. Still, it definitely revealed a correlation between three factors:

A quarterback’s Wonderlic score, the number of games he started in college and his passing accuracy in college.

The numbers that seemed to reveal the most interesting results were 26-27-60.

Players who surpassed 26 on the Wonderlic, started at least 27-games in college and completed more than 60-percent of their passes largely had their success translate to the NFL. Here is the link to the original piece, but more to the here-and-now, what has happened to quarterbacks since that piece first was published?

Given that college offenses have become much more wide-open and spread out, do the numbers still translate?

The results are startling. Not counting the 2013 NFL draft class, since they were rookies a season ago, here are the top-six cumulative scores since the 2010 draft. I came up with a total score, which includes each players’ Wonderlic, games started and completion percentage in college:

1) Colin Kaepernick — 144.2

2) Andrew Luck — 142.0

3) Colt McCoy — 140.1

4) Andy Dalton — 139.7

5) Kirk Cousins — 137.1

6) Sam Bradford — 134.6

Those players combined have started 177-games and accounted for three different teams making a playoff appearance.

By contrast, here are the six lowest-scoring quarterbacks since 2010, cumulatively:

1) Cam Newton (a 1-year player at Auburn) — 101.1

2) Brock Osweiler — 101.6

3) Jake Locker — 110.1

4) Ryan Mallett — 113.8

5) Ryan Tannehill — 116.5

6) Jimmy Clausen — 119.6.

Combined, those quarterbacks have started 108 games — just 60 if you consider Cam Newton an outlier as a one-year player at Auburn. Newton also has accounted for the only playoff appearance among those quarterbacks.

The top-six quarterbacks also have a combined record of 94-80. The bottom-six, a combined record of 49-59 (24-36, minus Cam Newton). Perhaps it is mere coincidence, but ask most any NFL GM or head coach today and he likely would say that first group of quarterbacks rates miles ahead of the second group.

So how do the 2014 prospects compare? Here are their numbers, followed by those of every NFL quarterback drafted in the top-four rounds since 2010.